Review: When I Grow Up, I Want to be ... a Missionary

My younger son is 7 years old and has, for a few years now, asked about being a missionary. He says he wants to live out the words in the Bible that tell us to go into all the world. We have tried to support him in this, talk to him about being a missionary at home until he's old enough to leave home. So, when the opportunity came to review a book about being a missionary popped up from The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I was quickly drawn to it.

When we hear the command in God's word to, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:19-20 we often think of disciples heading out to the churches of the New Testament. But this command was not just for Jesus' time, it's was for all time until the end of the age when He returns. We are all to share God's word with those we meet, but some are called to a life of doing this command. Missionaries are dedicating their lives to this task, this call.

When I Grow Up, I Want to be ... A Missionary" is a wonderful addition to the WannaBe series. It starts with real life stories of mission work from three different types of missionaries. We meet a family that lives with Indians in Mexico after feeling called to a completely different country. God had other plans. We are then introduced to a family who is in a closed country and learn what that means, what the specific challenges are with being in a nation where others can't know you are a missionary. Last we meet a young woman who is "teach(ing) all nations" right here on our own soil, in the United States.

What I wasn't expecting is that this is NOT just a book to read to your kids. It's so much more. After reading about the various missionaries they go into detail of how to become a missionary starting with just witnessing where you live right now all the way to going to other nations to spread the Gospel of Christ.

It ends with bringing everything you just learned, and things that would be important to missionaries (weather in certain areas, money for support and budgeting, etc), and uses those topics to teach the various areas of your school week. You have science, math, reading, art, vocabulary, and handwriting. It also includes work for all levels of student. There are coloring pages and tracing for your pre-K age children and print, cursive, word problems, and crosswords for older kids. The age range on this study is 4-10, and it's very appropriately executed.

Now, for my favorite part of a review, my take. When I first received this unit study I thought I was getting a book to read to my sons. I was excited about that and ready to dive into it. As I opened the file and saw it's size, I quickly realized I was wrong. This was an entire study that could last at least a week, if not more depending on how much of it you did each day.

I liked that each missionary family story had pictures. It's one thing to read to a child or have a child read to himself, but with this age range, pictures really help drive home the lesson. It's hard for a child living in middle class America to realize how poor people can be. Pictures help them grasp that concept. The pictures in this study showed that but in a very gentle and non-scary way. I appreciated that a lot.

The lessons after the reading portion were thorough. I feel like there was so much work done for me, as the parent, that I could just step into this study on day 1 and not need a lot of prep work. With unit studies, that's huge. Sure, you need to pull together some supplies for the craft or cooking exercises, but that's easy and can be done the morning of the activity.

I appreciated the real world application this study provided. Kids are taught about budgeting (a lesson often overlooked by parents), sign language, and about the work that a child needs to do in order to become a missionary. It's not just abstract ideas that puts a missionary up on that elusive pedestal we often think about when we see them come into our churches in their native dress with pictures of foreign lands. They give links to missionary boards and the steps you must take to go into the field on a foreign level. Practical advice is one of the most unique parts of this study, in my opinion.

I hope you will visit The Old Schoolhouse store and check out this unit study. It's well worth your time and, honestly, I learned a lot as a parent which makes this feel like a family activity instead of another school project.

I am going to have to check this out! We are full time missionaries and work with low income folks in the United States. My kids know missionaries from around the world and are friends with a lot of other missionary kids. However, it is always fun to read about other missionaries. This was a great review!